Legal Arguments for Health and Safety

Workplace accidents can lead to serious injury and even death. It is not morally correct to sacrifice human health for the activities of an organization. All organizations have management processes or arrangements in place to manage payroll, human resources, finance and quality control – health and safety management is no different. There are strong legal reasons for employers to manage risks: workers must therefore behave in a mansion that does not endanger their own health and safety or the health and safety of others. This includes working with their employer on the application of safe work practices as intended. Being safe and healthy is the most fundamental right we all share. Unfortunately, every year, many workers and members of the public are seriously injured or killed as a result of employer activities in various sectors. Moral reasons are based on the concept of an employer who must exercise due diligence towards its employees. A person does not expect to risk his or her life and physical integrity or health as a condition of employment. The Occupational Health and Safety Management Regulations, 1999 (MHSWR) require employers to take precautions to control health and safety hazards.

At a minimum, you should have the necessary processes and procedures to comply with legal requirements, including: Moral arguments in favor of health and safety are linked to ethical and responsible behavior. Effective leaders and supervisors know the risks facing their organization, rank them in order of importance, and take steps to control them. The range of risks goes beyond health and safety risks to include quality, environmental and financial damage, but problems in one area can affect another. The company expects every employer to adopt a correct attitude towards the health and safety of its employees. It is unacceptable to place employees in situations where their health and safety are threatened. Statistics on accidents, incidents and illnesses help reinforce the message that health and safety must be managed effectively. These statistics also show that those who work for small businesses are proportionally more at risk than those who work for large organizations. This is clearly morally reprehensible. Especially when everything is going well, we often forget our reasons for all problems. But that`s exactly when we tend to slip – controls and audits are postponed, annual online health and safety training is forgotten, risk assessments and methodological statements are skimmed, and equipment checks are skipped before use. Accidents and illnesses are costly. These costs may be calculable directly from the accident, such as sick pay, repairs to damaged equipment, fines and legal fees, or more difficult to determine, such as lost orders and business interruptions.

In practice, the costs that are more difficult to calculate are often much higher than those that are easier to estimate. All employers are required to take out certain types of insurance against accidents, illnesses or other problems, such as: In addition to the obvious obligations an employer owes to its employees, it also has a moral obligation to protect others whose health and safety may be affected by its activities, such as contractors or members of the public. In an ideal world, all organizations would “self-regulate” or “self-monitor” to determine and enforce the most appropriate health and safety standards for their operations. This has several advantages, two of which are that each company is best placed to regulate its own activities, and it would also avoid the need for a separate (and costly) regulator. Unfortunately, not all organizations are sufficiently motivated or enlightened. The case for health and safety has never been clearer. 2. Employers shall ensure that, as far as possible, chemical, physical and biological substances and agents under their control do not present a risk to health if appropriate protective measures are taken. Occupational health and safety management is not an optional activity.

It is demanded by criminality and any employer who does not comply with it exposes itself to very significant legal risks.